The Mismatch - LeBron’s Future, a Brunson State of Mind, and Embiid’s Wild Week

Episode Date: February 2, 2024

Verno and KOC discuss the selection of the All-Star reserves, starting in the East with the Knicks’ Jalen Brunson, before moving on to discuss Joel Embiid’s injury and what it means for the 76ers (01:25). The guys discuss the snubs in the West and debate what changes can be made to accommodate the most worthy players (28:23). Also, the clock is ticking for LeBron James and the Lakers, and the guys debate what the right move is for both (39:26). Read KOC’s article about LeBron and the Lakers here. Got a question for Verno and KOC? Send them an email at [e-mail]! Or you can send the guys a tweet at @ChrisVernonShow and @KevinOConnorNBA! The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming, please check out http://theringer.com/RG to find out more or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Hosts: Chris Vernon and Kevin O’Connor Producer: Jessie Lopez Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Who cares about your team winning the Super Bowl when your team could win the offseason? My name is Danny Heifitz and I host the Ringer NFL Draft Show with Danny Kelly, Ben Solac and Craig Horlebeck. We cover trades, free agency, the draft, obviously. We cover quarterbacks and there are a lot of good quarterbacks this year. And the teams at the top of the draft, Washington, New England, Chicago, big teams with big histories. Listen to the Ringer NFL draft show on Spotify. Welcome to The Mismatch. I'm Chris Vernon. and join me as he does every Friday from the ringer.com is Kevin O'Connor,

a.khaa, Kevin O'Bomber, Kevin O'Climber, Kevin O'Colm, Kevin O'Chyr, Kevin O'Brien, Kevin O'Brien, Kevin O'Brien. Kevin O'Brien! How are you doing on this beautiful morning? I'm great. We typically record on Thursday nights. We're recording on this Friday morning. I was at a basketball game last night, a game that had mercifully, for NBA fans, gotten flexed off of national television. the Memphis Grizzlies versus the red hot Cleveland Cavaliers. So I'll tell you what I thought about the Cavs here in a little bit. But one of the big things that took place last night was the announcement of the All-Star. So we will start with that because everybody always cares about who makes the All-Star team.

And that was going on while right before the game that I was at last night. the All-Stars, of course, the starters had already been announced. Deanna Sontza-Tacompo, Joel M.B., Jason Tatum, Tyrese Halliburton, and Damian Lillard in the East, and then the reserves. We could kind of take these one-by-one, the guys that were named All-Stars. Jalen Brunson for the Red Hot Nicks, him getting teary-eyed, you know, in the interview last night, was just such an incredibly special moment. But he is such a great story to hear Tibbs talking about him, who has obviously known him since he was a child. And that he has like been this, you know, like every day there's a new article.

It's like the unsuspected superstar or second rounder to NBA All-Star or now the new, you know, the new thing in the big apple is Jayla Brunson. And not only has he been absolutely awesome and a leader for that team, it was super cool to see that. And that's when people can become trite, but you see something so special like that and a goal accomplished and a guy getting recognized. And I think everybody knew. Most people thought he should have been a starter that he was going to get named. But it still was like really a moment, like an achievement and was clearly very special. to Brunson, Nick's, Nick's fans, that he got that acknowledgement. So the first one right off the bat, I think everybody was thrilled about.

I mean, it was also just like a special night. Drops 40 points, big game for him and crowdshan MVP. It's just pretty cool. I mean, all of it's a good story. It's the best, it's definitely, from what I understand, the number one all-time case of tampering. Like, that sure worked out, huh? A second round pick.

Yeah, second round pick. Well worth it. You know, I've been thinking about this a lot because I know there's a lot of rightful dunking on Dallas for the success of Jay La Brunson. But I will say this. We always, sometimes we can do a lot of revisionist history on this stuff. Now, Jaila Brunson is one that the mismatch can gleefully say that we talked about a lot leading into that draft because it had always been one of my.

things when we kept on every year we talk about who's that guy that the agist thing is going to get him right we he is he is awesome he has proven he's awesome and yet he's going to drop for whatever reason he's not in these first round mocks he very well may go in the second round and of course he did uh right into the second round and that we have one of these happen virtually every year. And we try to spot it beforehand. And so we had talked about Brunson. And then his career with Dallas ends with him being better than we ever would have expected him being. And when Luca went out, he took over completely. He was absolutely unbelievable. He's got the ball. He's running pick and roll. He's dominating. And then if you remember,

you know, they're playing against Phoenix, Luca comes back, and his numbers like cratered, all of that stuff that he had just been mowing people down with, because now it's a Luca dominant team. And so all I'm saying is, of course, you should have kept him. Of course, they should have paid him.

All I'm saying is, it ran through my mind thinking about this, because one of the other starters in this Easter conference is Tyrese Halliburton. I don't think we ever see this Jalen Brunson if he's playing with Luca. He's a guy that

needs the ball. And I know you never see this Tyrese Halliburton if he's still playing with the Aaron Fox. And the reason this was all going through my mind last night is because I'm watching Donovan Mitchell dominate the ball last night. And I'm going, you're never going to get the Darius Garland if this is the case.

Like Darry's Garland is going to, one of them is going to end up on another team at some point and they're both absolutely awesome. But sometimes, and you've talked about this a lot, Kevin, with the overlap. It's like, and the best thing to do with this guy is to run pick and roll. Well, the best thing for the other guy on your team is to dominate the ball as well. And so maybe we never get to see that Halliburton if he's still with Fox. Maybe we never get to see that. Garland, if he's still with Mitchell.

And I would just say that, yes, it was a mistake, but I don't think we ever get to see this full view of Brunson if he did get retained by Dallas. Not to piss off Mazz fans again, but how much of that is Lucas' fault for being inflexible at the time? And, I mean, he's accommodated Kyrie more. Granted Kyrie misses every game. But with Brunson and Luca,

shouldn't it have theoretically worked even better than it did? Because they did have success together, but couldn't have Brunson have still blossomed in that environment, not to this extent, obviously. This is a totally different environment. He runs that offense, like you said,

he is the orchestrator. He is the engine. He is in New York, right? That's why I thought he should have been a starter. It's why he could be an all-NBA guy. Brunson is special. but couldn't it have worked even better in Dallas if Luca were willing to sacrifice a bit more and it's understandable why he doesn't but this has always been the LeBron thing right which is

you've you've got to sacrifice you're you're just and maybe sometimes not getting the best of a guy what he would totally be possible of for sure is the best thing, right? It's the don't fit out, fit in thing that LeBron has always said about, you know, he said of years ago about Kevin Love. Like if you're playing with a player of that magnitude, Jason Kidd just said, Luca is on a Michael Jordan trajectory. He's in that, you know, class of talents. If you're playing with a guy like that, it's on you to figure out how to fit. And Brunson's the guy scoring 40. Lucas is the guy scored 70, right? So, I mean, I think, I get I get it. I'm just, you know, it's just interesting to think about, like, in a different world where, where Luca were willing to move more without the ball, to cut more, be a screener more. Like, what would that have looked like with Brunson with those two together? It's just, it's just something I think about it.

And to his credit, it's working much better with Kyrie that we would have expected it to work. It's like lessons learned. Plus, this is like just in terms of the name value of a player. and the proven successful player, this is Kyrie Irving. That was Jaylen Brunson, who hadn't proven he could do this at this scale at the time, except for when Luca was out. The next of the reserves was Donovan Mitchell, a guy I got to see in person last night.

I think in some ways Mitchell has, he has delved into the underrated. You know, when we get to the playoffs, everybody always is like, Donovan Mitchell, because he's got one of the best playoff points per game in the history of the league and has always been a big time performer when it comes to that stage. But just getting to see him and it's, you know, Jared Allen unfortunately twisted his

ankle last night after 20 minutes. And so he was out of the game. And Mobley wasn't playing. They're trying to work Garland back into the mix. I mean, they clearly are going to try to work this stuff. back together after they had had such an amazing groove. But credit to them, the group continues. And every time I see him in person, I'm reminded of what a, just a massive star he truly is and how he can be your best player. And he's not playing with the who's who last night. You look around there and it's like, man, this is, I get it.

Jared Allen's been amazing. He's got the, he should have had his 17th consecutive double, double. They took a rebound away, I believe, so he ended up with nine. But he would have had 17 consecutive double-double. So Jared Allen has been great and anchoring what has been the number one defense for some time now. But Mitchell is great, well-deserving. And I think they have certainly massively overachieved compared to what we thought would happen after they lost their guys. That turned from, man, do you now have to think about trading guys and maybe Mitchell especially to this has been the best team in the league for over a month record wise?

It's kind of crazy the way it's played out. But Mitchell and Allen as a duo get all the credit for that. And I'm glad that, you know, Mitchell, I don't think there was any surprise with that, but I'm glad that he got recognized. You guys made a trade yesterday, Ola Depot, acquiring. him for Adams and two I've already got my Oladipo jersey Kevin oh yeah yeah I don't I wonder if he'll ever step foot in Memphis I don't even

know if there's anything you have to do with the transaction for him to step foot but the Stephen Adams thing sad to see him go I am I am you know I am more sad that it didn't work out with him being able to play these two years because you know he got hurt last

January and banged his knee and then you've got a mess of injury. I think he probably did not want to get cut on. And, you know, it's one of those that you hopefully can revive that knee. And you can manage it without hopefully having to get it cut on. But then it obviously after playing two preseason games, which he was great in. And so that was even more depressing. And he didn't get hurt in him. It was like, okay, this has got to get cut on. And so we missed a whole other season. And he's got a lot of miles on him.

He immediately turns your team into the best or one of the best offensive rebounding teams in the NBA. There is not a team that Stephen Adams has been on in his career. And that is for good reason. I mean, he is the common bond. No matter where he's played, you're going to immediately become a great offensive rebounding team. He's a great teammate. He is an awesome role-playing center. better passer than I gave him credit for. But I understand his contract goes out. You want to stay

out of the second apron. You want to get assets. So there's usually a move that means another move might be on the horizon. And, you know, since they've had John Morant, they've had Jonas Valchunas and Stephen Adams. Those are not ideal fits. What you would love to have is somebody that can really rebound to put next to Jared Jackson. And it's a above the rim finisher. Somebody that you can run pick and rolls with like the Jared Allen type thing, the pick and roll finisher when you're playing with such a dynamic point guard and also, you know, Bain, who can now create off the dribble as well. So I think that, you know, long term, you probably want a great fit. And, you know, these are the kind of money transactions that take place. I mean, they're not going

anywhere this year anyway. So you're planning everything out for next season. If he comes back and is good, that'll be great for Houston. Great. He's a great player to have on your team. With the Rockets, there was rumors about them going after Robert Williams from the Blazers, even though he's out injured right now. And Adams kind of fits the same mindset there as Time Lord, except obviously way older. I don't even know if it's fair to say he's more injury prone at this point. Rob Williams is very injury prone, but it makes sense for Houston. And also, like, because he has the one year left on his contract, it doesn't mean that they can't trade him again. Like Houston could always flip them.

So that's just something to monitor there. And for Memphis, obviously, this is, you know, you get the expiring and changes your finances above all else. Other Easter Conference All-Stars, Jalen Brown, we agree, totally deserve best team in the Eastern Conference. Of course, they've got multiple All-Stars. Bamata Bio for the Heat? It was interesting to me that he was recognized as an All-Star. I don't have a problem with it. But the heat have just been on the struggle bus in the biggest way recently.

Now, this obviously takes place, you know, the voting and everything probably takes place before. This has gotten to this point. But man, oh, man, I don't really have a problem with it. Randall, Maxie, and then Palo Bencaro. Bencaro. So you got three new ones in Maxi, Bencaro, and Jalen Bronson. Those are the ones to truly focus on. All very deserving.

And I was very happy that Bencaro made it, especially after, in our last episode, episode, I raved about Bancaro and what I had just seen and how much I loved him and his future prospect. It was nice to see him make his first All-Star game. Yeah, dude, exactly. Yeah, we talked about him a ton on our episode earlier this week, so I don't want to repeat, I put it on a clip about Van Carrow as well. All right. How about Maxie? Let's talk about that, because he had 51 last night after being named to his first All-Star team. And it is really cool. And, I mean, I don't know how 50s is going to have to have to have them winning games on a regular basis because, unfortunately, one of the huge stories that has happened since we last spoke is the Embede injury.

And man, oh, man, what a wild week it has been via social media because the first thing was getting killed for, not for the conversation changing surrounding Joel and Bede 70 and then Lucas 73 because I suppose most people don't understand why after four guys score 60 and two guys score 70 the conversation would change from when it was truly this historic statistical anomaly

but neither here nor there It's how much I praised Embed over Luca. And then by this episode, it's about how much I can't stand Embed because we ripped them for not playing against Denver. And look, I understand that we're in a day and age

where you just got to find somebody to be mad at. But being mad at the media ain't it. Okay, look, I didn't say Joel Embed wasn't hurt. His team said he wasn't hurt. He said he wasn't hurt. So you, the observant fan, can look and you go, oh, you have to do is watch him, but you can tell he's hurt.

I don't have, that's not on me. I don't have to why. No, I get to trust his team and him. He told Tim Bondems, I'm playing, I'm fine, I'm playing in Denver. His team, the day of the game said he's not hurt. That's what an injury report is. So to blame us for him then playing in the next game, like we have anything to do with it.

Anything. The media has nothing. And if you want to talk about, oh, well, the pressure of people saying that he ducked and beat is the reason he played in the next one. Oh, and then what? Did I go and did I push over stupid commingas? So did he fall on his leg too? I was out there.

I yanked him down so he'd fall on his leg. He shouldn't have been out there in the first place that the media is the ball. Come on. Give it a rest. Look, the team is responsible. The player is responsible. I don't know how far down the list.

Some media member you're mad at the guy having this, you know, freak injury is. But the guy got landed on. It sucks. Should he have not been out there? Okay. I will accept. He was injured. He shouldn't have been out there.

Then you know what should happen? His team should say he's injured. You know what should happen? He should say he's injured. That's not Chris Vernon and Kevin O'Connor's job. That's not any other media member's job. I don't know. All I can say is if you tell me you're not injured and then you don't play and then

you duck out 15 minutes before the game, what am I to believe? On the note of Cominga falling on Embed's leg, the other leg, by the way, it's not the leg that we knew at that time was giving him issues. This is the other leg that he ended up potentially tearing the menisket's in. I was watching Dr. Brian Souterer's video on this injury. And I think you're familiar with a Suterer. He makes YouTube videos analyzing sports injuries, and he does a tremendous job. He speculates that that fall on an infomerate. Embed's leg isn't actually what caused the injury because of the way the knee flexes in that

situation, but it could be what agitated it and made symptoms appear. And obviously, we don't get into the science and the mechanics of it, but I was very intrigued. Brian speculates that Embedede had already had the torn meniscus for who knows how long, and it may or may not have been displaying symptoms because that's often the case with slight tears in the meniscus. And because the Sixers aren't rushing straight to say he needs surgery, he needs to have this repaired, it could be a very, very minor tear in the meniscus, like something very minor, which would not require surgery, and therefore mean that he can come back at some point

during the season. I've heard personally, earlier in the week, you and I both know we heard that it was a torn meniscus. That turned out to be true. I also heard that he's going to be out through the All-Star Week, right? All-Star weekend, he's going to be out through then. But so far, I'm not hearing any speculation of surgery. There was no reporting last night from Woj or Shams or anybody who put it out there

indicated surgery. So hopefully that at least means Indeed can come back at some point during the season. Whether or not he'll be 100% healthy, flying around the floor, that remains to be seen. but I think there's a chance based off the reporting, the rumblings, and the analysis from, you know, people who understand these injuries. I'd be a little bit surprised if it were surgery at this point, and hopefully it's not. Unfortunately, I had to learn a lot about this back in the day when it was the Jaron Jackson one, which is, and I think it comes down to typically if you're going to get cut on, it's like repaired or removed. Repaired is what you would do with the young player. A lot of guys get removed and that it's always a problem.

Like, you know, you can still play, right? But down the road, it's, you know, you can get the bone on bone and whatever. And for us or if he did have a meniscus injury on this knee years ago. Right. And so it would be interesting to see the way they play it out. He very well may be able to come back. I hope he does. He was having an unbelievable season, unbelievable season.

Yeah. And he has had his battles with any. injuries over the years. And so here's hoping that he could come back and give them their chance because they certainly have a chance of the title. It's fascinating to think about how this alters, how they think about the next week. Do you think it alters it at all? In what way?

What do you mean? Trade deadlines next Thursday. For the Sixers. Yeah. I don't know. I mean, I don't think so. I think they're going to continue with the same mindset that they've had. and that they'll take a deal if it makes sense to do more than going for cap space this summer.

I don't think that changes. You don't. No, I don't. I think you would have really gone for it this year. I don't know. I think they're serious about the cap space this summer. And they also feel this roster, but they feel this roster is great still, as is. You see it with Maxie last night with what he's capable of.

They feel that this roster has a high probability. making a deep prong. I mean, there's that old quote of Darry, which is going to get rehashed. If you got a 5% chance to win in the championship, you owe it to yourself to go for it. So, we know that that's how

he typically operates. And that's how he feels. But it's like we They got way better to 5% chance. But it's like we talked about a couple months ago, what is out there? That's the question. What's out there that's more worth it than sticking

with what you have and then also having your cap space for the summer to also bolster your chances next year. That that's the question. Well, the other thing is you need another guy that makes it so that if you can bring him back, that it's not all on him. Yeah. But if it means not healthy, then it's over anyway. Like, you need him be healthy, no matter what.

Even if you go get another guy, you go get Derozen and Caruso. You go get those guys. You don't need him 100 then. Yeah, you do. probably never getting them 100 this year. You still need it at least 90 plus. I don't know, man. And everybody's playing with something at that point of the season too.

So, I think it equalizes, but I don't know. I don't think it changes anything personally. Awful to have it play out the way that it has. It changes something if it be need surgery, obviously. But if they feel he can come back and perform at a high level still,

if this is something that he, as Souterer speculates, could be something that he was already playing with, well, you know, then that's something makes you feel better about his chances of reaching the same form later in the year. Well, to that point, that makes a lot of sense to me because...

Speculation, you mean. No, no, no, I'm telling you about the studer, the suitor stuff, what you're saying, that he, it doesn't make sense that that necessarily caused it. But what happens is something might have, and then you go and look at it and you go, oh, this, you got a little tear in here, right? Yes.

And the reason I'm saying this is because everybody knows that one of the best players in the NBA is John Morant, and he lost his season completely to this shoulder thing. So if you remember, they beat the Lakers on like a Friday night, and he's sitting on the scorers table getting interviewed it after the game and made some three's in the fourth quarter of that game shooting. And then Saturday, they say he hurt himself at a training session. And now he's got this, you know, blown shoulder that's going to require surgery. And he's out for the year.

And everybody's like, what the hell? What I was told was he didn't hurt the shoulder necessarily on Saturday. But his shoulder was already hurting. And he was just playing through it. And of course, he felt guilty for the 25 game. But it's been a thing, right? But it's not something that would keep him from playing. But then maybe you're lifting weights or whatever you're doing.

Maybe you're playing in practice. And then you're like, damn, man. They're like, hey, we need to take a look at that. They take a look at it. They go, hey, man, you can't be playing with this. Same thing with them beat. That's exactly what Brian said. He's like, because this happened on the court,

it forces the team to then take a look at it. And his point was you can look at the meniscus of a ton of athletes who actually have micro tears and that should require them to take time to rest and heal it naturally or even get surgery. But they don't even, some players don't even feel it or if it just feels like normal soreness to them. And that's like it's not anything that requires doctors to take a look. But obviously it does make you wonder. Like, you know what I mean? If you just took all these guys and you put them in an X-ray.

They had the whole league in surgery probably. That's what playing. That's what playing professional athletics is. Some replacement players. Bandles putting the ball in your court for the rest of the NBA season because right now new customers get $200 and bonus bets with any winning $5 bet. That's $200 if your bet wins. And Friday's a perfect time to get rolling with the slate of NBA games.

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On the Western Conference, we knew the starters were LeBron, Durant, Yokic, Donchich, and SGA. The reserves were announced last night. Anthony Edwards, leading score on the team that's been number one for the majority of the season in the Western Conference, no issues. Steph Curry,

one of the biggest stars in the entire NBA. I'm going to actually see him tonight in person. Maybe the least I've looked forward to watching a Grizzlies Warriors game ever. Kauai Leonard, I mean, he's having an unbelievable season. He has missed a minimal amount of games, which is the most shocking part.

but he has been absolutely awesome for a team that has been great post the first five games after the Harden deal. Anthony Davis is having a great statistical season on a mediocre team. Devin Booker, I thought that maybe he had missed, you know, the missing the games that he did would hurt him. But he's in there. Paul George, again, very good team. having a good year, and then Carl Towns. Seems like the one that everybody's, you know, bickering with is the king's not having anybody, neither Fox nor Sabonis.

And the Subonis one feels especially egregious, considering he's having this freakish season. And if you're having a freakish statistical season and you're not on a bad team, like you remember a couple years ago when he had the discussion about Brad Beale not making it, He was averaging like 30 points a game, but his team wasn't good, and he got left out in favor of some guys that were on good teams. So bonus is averaging 20 points, 13 rebounds, and eight assists. The only player to ever have a season where he averaged that was Will Chamberlain. I mean, not Yokic, not Embed, not Bill Russell, not LeBron. Like, nobody.

Like, those are gaudy, gaudy numbers that he is putting up, and the Kings are good. So that one That one is goofy to me Sabonis and I know you're the biggest Sabonis fan of the world So I can imagine that you think it's a crime Against humanity I mean I'm a realist when it comes to him

We know he's a tremendous regular season player And he should be an all-star He should be I mean I think you could make an easier argument For Sabonis over Paul George You could make it over cat Other than that I mean maybe you can make it over Ants

But I would I don't think I'd do that. I wouldn't go that far, but I think you could over George. You could over Kat. I think you could also argue for Rudy Gobert over his own teammate Carl Anthony Towns. I think you could make arguments for Lowry Marketing, but not over Demont de Sabonis. It seems like most of the snubs. I know Trey Young in the East is a snub in some regards, but I think most of the snubs seem to be in the Western Conference.

Yeah, it was real arguments, right? Well, and I feel like it was crazy is you see the Anthony Edwards thing, or he's like they're asking about wanting to be an all-star. He's like, I don't really care about being an all-star. I just hope Rudy makes it. Yeah. And then Towns gets it. I'm like, your own guy wanted the other guy to make it.

Your own teammate. I'm a little surprised by the coaches deciding that. Are you? I don't know. I'm kind of shocked by that, to be honest. I think O'Bair has been, he's been sensational defensively for them this season. He's, I don't know. I'm a little, I guess, defense ultimately.

it just, I don't know, it feels like the coaches, you know, decided that we're going to reward the perimeter guys, the scores. Like, Sabonis is like he's a score, but not a perimeter type of score guy that they rewarded like the Paul George's, the Carl Anthony Towns is those perimeter guys more so than anything else. Fox's not making it as a surprise obviously too. And I feel terrible for those guys because it does matter to them greatly. In the end, when it's all said and done, we do go back and look at how many all. Star games you made. We were just having a discussion the other day on my show where we were like, I think we went and looked it up and there's like maybe two, I think. I think there were like two guys that had made seven or eight All-Star teams that are not like Hall of Famers. It was Joe Johnson.

Joe Johnson was one of them because we were talking about Lowry after he had gotten traded. That's what it was. It was like Lowry's made, I think, six. But I mean, like that's the kind of stuff we do. It's like after your careers all said, don't we go back and look and we go, yeah, you know, God did make six all-star games. I mean, it makes seven all-star games. So, I mean, it does matter. It is a marker as to where you were within the league. And especially for the years that you and I were not aware of, you know, when we go back and we look at like the 80s, if we want a historical reference point for who the best players were, we're going to go, who were the all-stars?

Well, Chris, this is why I was anti-moving back to East. West because Fox, Subonis, Gobert, these guys should be all-stars over Benkerow, Julius Randall, Jalen Brown. Let's just be honest there. The issue was going back to East West. So if for Kings fans or whoever it might be have gripes, I think the real argument for these guys is over some of the Eastern Conference players who were given spots because it was turned back into conferences for determining these teams.

And I think you and I both feel like the easy fit, which many have been proponents of so, you know, we can't claim this, but many have been proponents up for many, many years. I know David Aldrich has been on this for 20 years. Going conference list? No, just expanding it to 15. I don't know. That's unnecessary. Why don't what's wrong with keeping an exclusive at 24 total? I mean, I'm against 12 and each. I'd rather they move to conference list. I think there's three that you can absolutely say every year are our All-Star-level players. How many guys are going to play out there for two minutes? I don't know. Most guys don't play it anyway. We don't need more spots. I think there's enough spots.

Just keep it exclusive. All right. So we expand the all-N-Ba teams, too, from 15 to 20? Okay. Well, then look, hey, look, I'm fine with Rudy Gobert are not making it. You're not. No, I'm just saying that I think it should be. We could have gotten your guy in the game.

They made it change this year to make the teams east and west, but in the recent years with the determination of the spots, it's still been 12 East, 12 West. I think it should just be the best 24 across the league. It could be 10 guys in the East and 14 guys in the West. I don't see the issue with that. I like the conferences mattering. I wish conferences that divisions would matter more, not less. I can be open to that as well from a standing standpoint.

For All-Star, what does it matter? It's an exhibition game. Well, look, I will say this. I wish those guys would have gotten their awards. Sabonis and Gobert are horrible All-Star players. Like, you just don't want... Nobody wants to watch that in the All-Star game.

It's always like... Great basketball players. It's like coaches said, yeah, we'll pick the more entertaining All-Star players instead of the better performers. Yeah, but then that doesn't really... That doesn't really apply to Fox. Fox is a, he is made for an all-star game.

Fox is probably the biggest snub from both those perspectives. Yeah. In terms of performance, like he improved a lot this year. The way he extended his range from mid to three, it's impressive. He did a great job with that. All right. So we got to get to the story that you wrote earlier this week about kind of the, the Lakers and the crossroads and about your first Sports Illustrated cover that you remember

with Michael Jordan the Wizards on it. And then we had this report. I was looking back at the timing of those SI covers coming out. And the story I mentioned how my dad got a subscription of Sports Illustrated for kids, like sometime in like September, December 2001. And the first cover that I can remember is the Michael

Jordan one, which was January 2002. And I was looking back at the covers. The swimsuit cover came out in December. My dad must have kept that one to himself. You never, it was the first time you saw it. I don't remember that one.

Oh, I was, I, I, I was the first to get those out of the mailbox. And it's what my dad must have been to, I don't remember seeing them. I don't remember.

I didn't know they existed. I told you, my dad didn't get, my dad didn't get home from work until like, you know, typically is he would get home about five to five 30. He would go. He would pour this like,

huge Diet Coke, and then he would go and he would sit down. And at 5.30, it was at Tom Brokall was on the NBC Nightly News. And he would watch the nightly news of Tom Brokaw, right? And so I had really until six to do anything. So I was home. And my mom was teaching college. So like I would get dropped off at home. So like, I was the first to the mailbox.

Like, for the majority of my life. Oh, my God. What is happening to me? was like a communal event in my, in my neighborhood, because there's a bunch of like little boys who'd be like, look at this. I remember Elle McPherson, Kathy Ireland. Like, I remember like the big ones that came out. Ned, it was like when you're a 13, 14 year old boy, you're like, oh my God. Because we didn't have the internet. Yeah, I guess I had the internet became less important. And there would always be some, right? Yeah, right. There would always be some. That's what my dad kept.

them. I didn't even know they existed. I was like, that's how we, that's how we saw boobs unless there was like some weird kid who's like stepdad had playboys around the house or something, right? Other than that. That was laying out of the coffee table. Yeah, it was never, it was always a stepdad. The stepdad was always the one like without fail, all of my buddies. It was, if they're like dad had like salacious. materials. It was always their stepdad. The stepdad didn't care. But he, but yeah, when those

swimsuit issues had come out, big moments, big moments. Communal experience, you called it. Communal experience. Everybody, because we're all like, look at this. We didn't know, I mean, we didn't see stuff like that. I'm old, man. You got to remember, I'm old. Where would you see it? And it wasn't on TV like it was now. It is now. Yeah, that's true. Like, it was a thing. So, yeah, those like Kathy Ireland, El McPherson, those are all like, like, legends to anybody in my age group. Legends. So you write this article.

I will say as we update this morning, Rich Paul has said, we don't want to get traded and LeBron's not getting traded. And the reason why this happened is because a local L.A. reporter this week who has been on top of a lot over the years with LeBron's status. somebody told me last night he's the guy that tipped everybody off to the Kawhi stuff with the Clippers

David Pingelor maybe mispronouncing his last thing from KTLA he's been a sports anchor and reporter for many years he was on top of the Kauai stuff back in 2012 he said in two years LeBron's angling to get back to Cleveland a lot of stuff he's been on top of a lot of stuff and he said that the Lakers you know

top priority is moving LeBron and they're looking for a home for him. So then Rich Paul comes out today and says that we're not asking for a trade, LeBron's not going to get traded. So that's all out there. But within my article, what you're alluding to is earlier in the week on Tuesday, we published my LeBron thing. I kind of just go through the entire Laker situation, who were their trade assets, who were the guys that they could trade for, what are the guys that I would trade for,

how would I approach this situation? And then I throw out the question, well, if it's inevitable that LeBron's going to leave this summer for any reason to play with his son, to look for a better team or contender, is it possible that the best time for a divorce is right now? Because then LeBron could make the most of his age 39 season. He could join a contender. The Lakers could get more back than they would this summer if he were to walk into cap space or ask for a sign and trade. And it's just throwing the question out there is, what is it for the best now? And then everything happened, LeBron with the emoji, the time's up emoji. You know, there's just a lot happens throughout the week with the Lakers losing games.

Obviously, then they beat the Celtics last night without LeBron and AD. But it's all very interesting to me. Rich Paul says they're not going to trade him, so you figure he'd know. Well-timed article on LeBron, huh, this week? Really well-time. I had most of that written like 10 days. ago. But we decided to wait for a better moment.

The whole sand in the hourglass emoji is just something else. You know what you're doing. I know. Exactly. He knows what he's doing. Time's up. That's what the emoji was. The sand was at the bottom of the hourglass. Right. And it's like,

I think it is a very reasonable discussion to have, considering let's say this doesn't improve greatly. Let's say there's just a 500 team. And let's say they lose in the play-in. They run into somebody. They lose in the play-in.

Season's over. Does anybody think he's going back that he's just going to run it back? Maybe. Really? No, maybe go back, but not run it back. The Lakers this off-season, they'll have the ability to trade three first-round draft picks plus swaps. So L.A. right now can't make like a massive move.

Like they can't go out and get Tray Young today. Look, if you're... But this, but this summer, you could go get Tray Young. But I will say this. Your best chance at winning a title is having LeBron James. Of course, it is. Yeah, so you do what you can. You do what you can.

I do think if I'm Darwin Ham, I would immediately walk in that locker room last night and be like, see, this is how I'm supposed to look. Ball movement. It ain't that hard. Shooting 50% from three. Russell doesn't suck. Reeves doesn't suck. These guys don't suck?

Like, why do they suck? Everybody's been on their ass. It's everybody else. It's like you saw. Did they look like they suck last night? No, of course not. I mean, it's interesting to think, like, how do you get the most out of them simultaneously?

And this harkens back to the very first conversation we had with the Brunson. can you get the best of while playing with? And I think for the better part of 20 years, LeBron James was so good that you can throw him with anybody. But now they still play like he's the guy that's just going to get you home every night. And that's not where he is in his career. You're not going to get to the fourth quarter of a close game,

and it's like, all right, now we got this guy. and he's just going to get me home, right? Like, that's not where he is. He's still awesome, but he's not in that part of his career where it's, all right, like for the better part of 20 years, if you were in a tie game with three minutes left to go, you were, it's like, all right, they've got LeBrona, we don't. And that's not so anymore. And so how does everything transition into that?

And I'm sure that he probably doesn't feel that way right now. And I think you do have to wonder, like, can the 39-year-old guy who is the second best player to ever play in the league, can he be the best player on a title team? What do you think? This is why on the Laker side of things, still your best chance. I know, but this is why on the Laker side of things, you're planning to go after Luca in a couple of years when he's closer to free agency or when he hits free agency. How much do you want to invest in 39-year-old LeBron James and AD, who's a great player, but until the last calendar year or so was injury prone,

how much do you want to go all in on this when the flip side is, well, you could build a youthful team, you could get something back, you could set yourself up for that next wave of stars, either via trade or via free agency. Like, you do need to think long term as well, which is why they're not, like I wrote in the article, David Griffin with the Cavs gave up first round picks for Channing Fry and Kyle Corver, who were, when they were near the end of their careers, not even in their primes as role players. That's why the Lakers traded all of their youth and all of their picks to go get Anthony Davis. Because LeBron was different at that time when he was with Cleveland, when he was with Miami, and then when he first joined the Lakers, then he is now. He's 39 now. He can become a free agent this summer. He said he wants to play with his son.

So, you know, like there's so many factors that go into it. At some point, you run out of. Assess. But there's also so many times that you can blame the coach and blame the supporting cast. Yeah. We do it every year. For sure. Ham also has not been great this year.

He has been one of the bottom five coaches in the league this season. That's true. They looked pretty damn good last night. They did look good last night. They also shot 50% from three. And the selling makes zero adjustments in the game to attack two attack mismatches. I told you a thousand times, bro. You can have whatever coach you want over there.

You're playing the way LeBron wants to play. That's it. Yeah, but rotations and lineups still match. got you. I got you. And that's part of what plays into some of the inconsistencies. And like, you've talked so much about this over the years, Chris, where it's like guys knowing their roles. That's right.

Knowing what their responsibilities are. But on the lineup changes every night and guys don't know what to expect. That's where he has failed. That's where he's failed. That's a pretty big way to fail. Yeah. It's a pretty big way. And like he did the fact that that the lineup that helped fuel them to make the postseason

last year, 80 Vanderbilt, LeBron, DeLibon, DeLon, DeLan, DeLan, D. Lowe, Reeves, the fact that it played only like at this point, 27 minutes on the season, 30 minutes on the entire season. That's crazy. It played more minutes last Saturday against the Warriors in one game than it did the entire season prior. That's nuts. Well, they sucked at the beginning and then it becomes this whole thing again. They're bad at the beginning. And so he just bailed on it.

It's like, all right, now we're going to change it. Bad in nine minutes? Huh? Bad in nine minutes, though? No, no, no. I'm saying at the beginning of the season. That's why he started changing things around. And then, of course, everybody got injured.

I mean, they probably got up to a slow start and all that. Right. Of course. So now we got to make some changes because we don't have time to do any. Everybody's impatient about all of it. And now it's not the right thing to do. We should have just stuck to his guns and said, look, we just got to the, we just played against Denver. who won the title. That's what we lost to.

And this is our best lineup chance. But sometimes whenever you, anytime these guys have more choices to make, they can end up screwing that up. Sometimes you want the choices to be just made for you. And it's even better to only have, you know, nine healthy availables or something like that.

Well, this is quite a hot take, but I'll just say it. I don't think the Lakers should trade the Bronner. James. Gee, Kev. I think what they should do is make some moves around

the edges. Go after like a Kelly Olenick from Utah. Maybe you can try to get the Jaunty Murray in an Austin Reeves deal where you don't have to give up two first round draft picks. Something like that that improves your chances, improves your backup center spot,

improves your perimeter defense. And then you go over this season and see how far it takes you, but then you still have the powder for a bigger move this summer. A big move this summer that allows you to further bolster the team around LeBron and AD, or you go the other way and those guys that they decide they want to leave, and you have a young roster. If you get to Jonté Murray, he's got a new contract. Maybe he blossoms where he's away from Trey Young. Maybe he act, maybe this new three-point shooting that he's experiencing is for real. Maybe he taps back into his level of defense and he becomes

an even more valuable player overall. That's possible. You can't rule that out. We saw that how many times, like the Kings split up Halliburton and Fox and Fox blossoms, Halliburton blossoms. Maybe Murray is actually about to explode. It's just he's playing with Trey and those guys have to share the ball together,

and Trey's the guy there. So I think with Murray, I have my questions about him, but I'm just playing devil's advocate with myself when it comes to my assessment there. All right. Last thing before we get out of here, tell me about Apple Vision Pro. I saw you get,

there's like a hat tip, Kevin O'Connor, and I was like, what? I did this tweet on the clip. Yeah, so what was this old deal? And do you have one of these?

No, or were you just like, oh, this looks cool? It just looks cool to me. The Apple Vision Pro, Brian Tong, he posted a full 54-minute

review on YouTube, an overview of the Apple Vision Pro. And like a clip was tweeted out of him showing NBA League Pass on the Apple Vision Pro. And the way, like, within the, if you don't know what Apple Vision Pro is, it's like a VR headset where like there's a pass-through feature where you can kind of, it's like a, you're looking at a screen 4K recording of your room. It's weird. It looks like a ski goggles.

Yeah, it looks like ski goggles. But basically within the clip, Brian, um, He, like, in league pass within the Applevision Pro, he has like five screens on at once. It's like you have like a multi-monitor setup, except it's huge within your vision. It's like you're watching on a big screen TV, but you have monitors next to it. It's like the way Bill Simmons described his, like watching TV with his wife and the Larry Data podcast. It's like they're watching a TV show on the big screen, but then he's got basketball on the sides. That's what it's like.

It's like you have Bill Simmons living room within your own. Do you know what's crazy when he was telling that story? I harkered back to when I was in college, my best friend, he lived in Chattanooga. We went to his house and we were like, at one point one night, we went down to the living room. And his parents would sit there on the couch and they would like cuddle, but there were two TVs. There's one up and one, hey, one up and one below. and they both had headphones on. So they were both watching their own thing on the TVs,

but they were sitting with each other next to each other in the room. And I was like, that's, and they've been married over 50 years. And I was like, hey, it worked out, right? Like they were always, they were always together. They spent this time together, but they had these headphones on and we're watching different things. And I'm like, Timmy, what the hell is going? on here. He's like, they watch, like, my dad wants to watch the Braves and my mom's watching her shows. It's kind of cute. I know. That's, that's very sweet. I know, right? I never even,

I never even considered it. Yeah, that's nice. I like that. I felt the same way about the Bill's story. It's like, it's kind of cool. They're together watching TV, but they're sometimes Bill's glancing over at the game. Well, I probably just gave Simmons an idea because this usurps the volume issue, right? Yes, exactly. That's true. Apple, Applevision Pro, it's like we're in the beginning stages of, you know, of their Apple's products. Like, obviously, VR headsets have existed for some time. We're still in the first decade or so of VR, but I'm very intrigued by where the technology is going to go and some of the uses for it.

I look forward to the day that there's augmented reality glasses. That's where it's really important. I don't want to put anything. I don't have to put anything on my face or do any of that kind of stuff. regular glasses. If you could have like data, no, you don't want that at all? I'm just waiting until Elon Musk throws his

chip in my brain. And then he just knows that I want the channel to change to the Buck Celtics game. Oh, so you're ready for a neuralink in your brain in 30 years when the technology's good. That's what you're ready for, where you can

telepathically channel, telepathically send a text message. That's what it really is. You would have, you could have telepathia. Like, that's what it would be. Like, but yeah, that's, they did their first human trial for that. Would you be, if they, if Elon called you? No, because you guys are best buddies.

No way. You wouldn't be a human trial for them? No. They're doing, they're doing trials on people who like can't walk or can't see. Ah, come on. You ain't got that much to give society anyway. Come on. Yeah, at all I do is start basketball.

What's a difference? I heard about that earlier this week. But a what somebody told you all you do to talk basketball? In a sense. Oh, man. But with the Applevision, with the Applevision Pro. What was her name?

I'm a, I'm my, I'm a tell her that was messed up. I'm a tell her. Well, with the Applevision Pro, they're scheduling demos. I didn't purchase and I won't purchase.

It's too much money. How much is it? 3,500. $3,500. For that thing you put on your face? Yeah, $3,500. And then that's before taxes and potential add-ons. But on Monday, I'm going for a demo.

Like, I'm getting a 20, 30-minute demo on Monday morning for the Apple Vision Pro, because you can schedule that out, whether you demo it and you get to experience it within the Apple store. So I'm very, very excited for that to experience on Monday morning. Tell them we'll be influencers and try to get us a couple for free. Yeah, I'll try to swing it, you know, and try to work it out for me and you. I'm sure your son would have fun with it. I've got one of those Oculus things. Oh, yeah, I got one of those too.

I don't, and I'll be honest with you. I don't think the quality of those is enough for me to want to throw that on. It's a little too pixelated. But this one of the people like Ben Thompson. It freaked me out when I put it on. But, but you know, like Ben Thompson from Stratory, like his incredible tech blog, he wrote about it and talked about it on one of his podcasts. I think it might have been Sharp tech with Andrew Sharp, who people might know, NBA. with, yeah, yep.

So they talked about it and Ben made the point of like, it's like 4K. Like the way the quality of this screen is is just on another level from any prior VR headset. That's always been my hang up with the prior VR headsets. I just don't think the quality is at a level that I think is worth it. But this, it seems like is at that level. But the, like from what I understand it seems heavy. We'll talk about it more next week. What day you're doing it?

Monday morning. So we'll do a Monday night of review. of my 20, 30-minute demo of the Applevision Pro. But I'm very excited to try it out. I can't wait for the Monday night review. All right, that's going to do it for this episode of The Mismatch. Thank you to our executive producer, Jesse Lopez, as always. And Kevin, I'll talk to you next week.

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